Death by Trial and Error (A Legal Suspense Short)

By R. Barri Flowers

Death by Trial and Error is a psychological legal fantasy and suspense short in which a wife plots revenge against her unfaithful husband with an ending you will never see coming! A real page-turner and domestic drama, where the mind can take you to a place you never wanted to go.

Included as bonus material are excerpts of the author’s bestselling legal thrillers, State’s Evidence and Justice Served, and the delightful Maui, Hawaii private eye mystery, Dead in Pukalani.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R. Barri Flowers
• Release date: Aug 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370996698

R. Barri Flowers

R. Barri Flowers is the award winning, bestselling author of mystery and thriller novels, true crime books, relationship fiction, young adult mysteries, and children's books. Follow R. Barri Flowers on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Goodreads, LibraryThing, and YouTube. Learn more about the author on Wikipedia and www.rbarriflowers.com.

Book preview

DEATH BY TRIAL AND ERROR

A Legal Suspense Short

By R. Barri Flowers

Death by Trial and Error is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, business establishments, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DEATH BY TRIAL AND ERROR

A Legal Suspense Short

Copyright 2016 by R. Barri Flowers

All rights reserved.

Cover Image Copyright Racorn, 2016

Used under license from Shutterstock.com

CRIME AND THRILLER NOVELS BY R. BARRI FLOWERS

Before He Kills Again

Dark Streets of Whitechapel

Dead in Kihei

Dead in Pukalani

Dead in the Rose City

Fractured Trust

Justice Served

Killer Connection

Killer Evidence Legal Thriller 4-Book Bundle

Killer in The Woods

Murder in Honolulu

Murder in Hawaii Mysteries

Murder in Maui

Murder of the Hula Dancers

Murdered in the Man Cave

Murder on Kaanapali Beach

Persuasive Evidence

Private Eye Bestselling Mysteries 2-Book Bundle

Seduced To Kill in Kauai

Serial Killer Thrillers 5-Book Bundle

State's Evidence

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Death by Trial and Error

State's Evidence – Bonus Excerpt

Justice Served – Bonus Excerpt

Dead in Pukalani – Bonus Excerpt

About the Author

DEATH BY TRIAL AND ERROR

She wanted to kill the bloody bastard.

But how?

Should she run him down with her car?

She could imagine him begging for his life as he lay wounded in the street, bones broken from head to toe. She would make him suffer before once more rolling the car over the damaged goods.

And again, and again, until the life had been snuffed out of him.

Perhaps she should lace his chicken noodle soup with cyanide.

She would get a great thrill out of seeing him clutch his burning throat in a desperate attempt to relieve his agony. Or roll his eyes from a combination of the poison taking effect and the sheer disbelief of it all.

She would dance with delight watching him squirm on the floor as if he had been possessed by the devil himself.

And in that final moment of distress between life and death, she would laugh at him spitefully, the way he surely had been laughing at her for the last six months. Or however long it had been since he'd decided sharing another woman's bed gave him more pleasure and passion than sharing hers.

It was exactly one week ago that Harrison had told her about his affair. His intonation, usually deep with assurance and rich with confidence, had come across as flat and unrepentant. She felt as if she had been lowered into molten lava. Or told that she had a malignant brain tumor. The pain could not have been any worse.

What—? The word had shot from her mouth like a cannon. She was certain she had misunderstood him. Or even if she had understood him correctly, he surely couldn't have meant that which she feared most.

Maybe he was only playing with her, looking for some sort of reaction. He often liked teasing her, telling her things that would incense her, only to laugh playfully like a schoolboy who had pulled up a schoolgirl's dress merely for the sake of fun and frolic.

She hated that part of Harrison, the power he had over her to bring her to the brink of tears, to make her feel her whole world was about to collapse; then just as easily make her believe she had the whole world and all its blessings in the palm of her hand.

With him being her most cherished blessing.

Yes, he brought out the best and worst in her, often with merely a gesture, a smile, a frown, a comment, or some other manner of communication that could only exist between a husband and wife.

She looked at him standing in the doorway of the bedroom. For an instant, it was as if she had traveled back in time some two decades earlier when she first met Harrison Kincaid and fell in love with him the moment he flashed his megawatt smile at her. He was tall and solidly built, as if to her specifications. Dark, wavy hair was swept to the side and his eyes were a deep shade of blue. They were the kind of eyes that penetrated to the depths of your soul when he looked at you. She thought he was the most handsome man she'd ever seen.

And he still was.

It had been a childless marriage, borne as much from genetic mismatches as the decision to forgo having children in favor of their careers and each other.

He had gotten up, careful not to wake her, and dressed as if it was just another day in the life of Harrison Kincaid: author, lecturer, philanthropist, and asshole. She wondered how long he had stood there watching her, probably replaying his revelation over and over in his mind, trying to think of how best to let her down easily. For all Harrison's faults, he had always tried to cushion the blow when he had something bad to tell her, as if he could somehow come across as an angel of mercy rather than the devil in disguise.

Sitting up in bed, Emma suddenly felt more vulnerable than she ever had in her life. She saw herself as a forty-five-year-old hag with breasts that had begun to sag, hips that had expanded every year, and thighs that were beginning to resemble something akin to cauliflower. Her hair, once a lustrous shade of crimson, had become thin, flat, and seemed determined to remain a convoluted gray no matter how many different dyes she applied to it. Crow's feet had taken up permanent residence at the corners of her rich green eyes. Her taut porcelain skin was now dull and wrinkled.

She wondered if he saw her the same way. Had she grown too old and unattractive? Was she no longer enough for him now that he had begun to sense his own mortality at the age of forty-eight?

Had he really betrayed her in the worst way that a husband could ever betray a wife?

He seemed to be reading her mind as he stared at her without blinking. He remained wedged inside the doorway, as if to come closer would only make what he